Realme’s next phone could leave the iPhone in its dust - but Apple won’t care

Realme's launching two new phones that could make even Apple's best iPhone look underserved – in the battery department, at least. Even the Samsung Galaxy S25 could struggle in comparison.

Both the imminent Realme Neo7 and a currently unnamed handset for 2025 are said to be coming with batteries that make the even the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max look seriously short on stamina.

The first carries a huge 7,000mAh cell – as confirmed by Realme in advance of its official launch. And the second is reportedly even bigger, with a credible leak by renowned source Digital Chat Station claiming that it'll be 8,000mAh.

Even if Realme decides not to do the 8K one, the Neo7's battery is much bigger than that in Apple's biggest iPhone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It runs on a 4,685mAh battery.

However, Apple and its closest rival, Samsung, are highly unlikely to care.

Why Apple won't be bothered by bigger batteries

If we were talking about the Samsung Galaxy S25 then Apple might be concerned.

But Realme isn't competing in the same market – literally, in some cases. The Chinese brand rarely sells its phones in the UK, US or Australian markets, so the firm could be offering every one of its customers a free horse for all that Apple or other global rivals care.

There's another reason why it won't bother Apple though, and that's the fact that while Realme's battery size is impressive, having that much more capacity means trade-offs in portability, weight and overall design.

For example, I've just bought a power pack (even tech writers aren't immune to Black Friday) that's double the capacity of my previous one, and while it's from the same manufacturer with the same basic design it's much heavier. It also takes much longer to fully charge.

I don't mind the bulk when I'm travelling, but I don't want to be lugging around such a heavy lump every day.

That's a trade-off you can be sure Apple thinks about. For years it's talked about battery life in terms of "all-day" rather than milliamps. And with Apple apparently focused on making ever slimmer phones such as the iPhone 17 Air, aka iPhone 17 Slim, you can be confident that for the foreseeable future, it will prioritise lightness over battery life.